


stingers & stimpacks

by ficfucker



Category: Fallout 3
Genre: Established Relationship, Injury, M/M, Medicinal Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:27:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24523816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ficfucker/pseuds/ficfucker
Summary: lone treats charon
Relationships: Charon (Fallout)/Lone Wanderer, Charon (Fallout)/Male Lone Wanderer
Comments: 2
Kudos: 56





	stingers & stimpacks

**Author's Note:**

> no reason for this to even exist... wanted to write lone taking care of charon

Charon watched Lone's slender fingers work off his belts, snaking them out from around him. His vision was fuzzy around the edges, going red then purple at times as though he were seeing through stained glass. Lone mumbled something like "Gonna remove your chaps, okay?" and an apology, but Charon didn't know what he was sorry for. 

Lone worked the leathers off gingerly. Charon canted his hips up to assist, but his left leg felt like jelly. He shook. Lone noticed and as soon as Charon's thigh was bare, Lone urged him to sit back down, to relax. 

He leaned his head to the smooth rock he was seated against and relished at how pleasantly cold it felt. 

Worrying his bottom lip, Lone searched through his pack for something. "You with me still? Quiet even for you." 

"I'm here," Charon answered. 

"Okay. I'm getting tweezers." 

Charon knit his brow and looked down at his own leg. "I could pull it out myself." 

Lone shook his head. "Don't," he said sternly. "I don't want to risk the infection. I'm gonna dump some whiskey over you, alright? Then tweeze it out and go from there." 

A muscle loosened in Charon's shoulder. That should have been alarming, but his vision spotted red again and he forgot about the slackening. "Alright," he mumbled. 

Lone located his tweezers, a bottle of whiskey. He twisted the top off and offered a virgin swig to Charon who shook his head. He felt woozy enough. Lone didn't push and he dipped his tweezers into the bottle then doused Charon's thigh. 

"Fuck," Charon said, montone. 

Lone clacked the tweezers together and with a steady hand, clamped down on the fat stinger hooked into Charon. He muttered a countdown then yanked, hard. The barb dislodged and Lone discarded it off to the side with little interest. He peered down at the wound he'd opened. 

Charon's thigh looked like it had a small, gaping mouth now. 

"I'm going to give you a stimpack," Lone said. 

Charon grunted. The vault dweller's face smeared into a blob and Charon knuckled his eye to correct his vision. 

Lone uncapped the needle and speared it into the meat of Charon's thigh a few centimeters below the entrance wound, carefully pushing the plunger down. 

"I can tell you're the son of a doctor," Charon commented. 

Lone half smiled and set the syringe down beside the stinger. "Blessed with steady hands." 

Charon hummed and let his head fall gently back against the rock. The dusty horizon no longer spinned. Charon felt sleepy now, an odd thing for him, and he fought to keep his eyelids from drooping. 

Lone's smile had disappeared when he said, "I'm gonna try to get some of the venom out before I bandage you." 

Another noise of acknowledgment vibrated out of Charon. 

"I want you to talk to me while I work, okay? I don't like how quiet you're getting…" 

"What shall I talk about?" 

Lone shrugged and poured whiskey over his own hands, but it did nothing for the dirt under his nails. He shrugged and his attention focused sharply on Charon's thigh. "I don't know. Anything. Just talk so I know you're still with me." 

Charon mumbled, "Certainly," then stopped to consider a topic. "There are 12 universal rules to safely handling a firearm. Rule 1. Always treat a gun as if loaded." 

Lone snorted, an amused smile ghosting his face. He placed both palms down flat on Charon's thigh, flanking the wound. He gave a short, experimental push and a gush of radscorp venom spurted out. 

"Rule 2," Charon continued without so much as a wince. "Always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction." 

Lone pressed again, kind of squeezing this time. More venom gurgled to the surface and even with his kaleidoscope vision, Charon caught Lone's disgusted frown. 

Charon rattled out the next three rules, but stalled as Lone added an uncomfortable pressure and he felt, for the first time, a sharp pain shoot through his leg. He grit his teeth, worked his jaw. 

"C'mon, Charon, what's rule 6?" Lone coaxed, his voice soft. 

Charon exhaled and said, "Rule 6. Be sure of your target and what lay beyond it. Do not fire if unsure." 

Lone returned to his pack and fished out both purified and irradiated water. He cleaned his hands. He uncapped the irradiated water and flushed out Charon's injury which looked well cleaned of venom. Lone found an undershirt he'd looted from a rider's corpse and sliced a strip from the chest using his knife. He blotted Charon's thigh. 

"Rule 7. Learn the mechanical and handling characteristics of the firearm you are using. Each gun is different and must be treated as such." His voice wavered. He watched Lone. How soft his touch was. 

Wrapping came next. Charon kept droning on the rules, burned into his mind like the words of his contract. Lone torn more strips from the ratty grey shirt and wound them with noticeable pressure. Charon got up to rule 11 by the time Lone tied the bindings off. 

"We'll get you back to Rivet City soon as that swelling goes down and walking is manageable," Lone said, shoving his things into his backpack. "Bring you to the clinic and I'll rent a room… Here." He offered Charon the remainder of the irradiated water. 

Charon took it and drank it down in three long gulps. 

"How ya feeling, big guy?" 

"Fine." 

"How do you feel but give me the honest answer this time." 

"Like I fell off a Brahmin drunk." 

Lone snorted and sat down beside him in the cool shade of the rocks. "You seem… pretty straight laced. You know, for a man who's killed. But I've got a couple of things of Med-X, if the pain is too much." 

Charon shifted his leg a bit, felt a dry breeze go over him. He felt particularly naked in the Wastes with no chaps shielding his lower half. "The pain is tolerable." 

"I bet Barrows has given you Med-X. It's not Jet, you know." 

Charon's leg throbbed slowly. It ebbed down past his knee. "Mm. Patches glassed me once. Before I could get a hold on him." A final wave of residual poisoning went over him then and his head swam. He mumbled, "And I'm aware. Jet is a meta-amphetamine. Med-X is an opioid," Charon mumbled, as if that mattered. 

Lone had heard enough and opened his bag one more time. He popped the lid to the white plastic first aid kit and produced two syringes. "I think 2 will do… considering your size." Lone uncapped the first needle and Charon turned his arm up, offering it out with no resistance. "How do you know so much about guns and chems anyway?" 

The needle bit dully, nothing compared to the hole in Charon's thigh. "Ahzrukhal sold various chems. He ordered me to steal from Barrows, including medical notes." The second injection went in easier despite the toughness of Charon's skin. "A former employer of mine was a sharp shooter for pay. I recited the rules at his range to each customer."

Lone set the dirty needles beside the spent stimpack and glistening radscorp stinger. "A shooting range doesn't sound too bad of a place to be employed." 

The Med-X was already starting to loosen Charon pleasantly. He grunted. "Better when he held the gun. 20 caps and any bastard got a chance to peg bottles off a post. It was a post-war gimmick to appease humans who wanted to feel… lethal. Like Great War soldiers." 

Lone leaned his head on Charon's shoulder and Charon lazily drew an arm up around him. Lone felt bizarrely warm and Charon wanted to duck into him, curl around the smoothskin to capture his distinctly human heat. 

"Go out to the Wastes and shoot at molerats if you want to feel special." 

Charon snorted a laugh. "This was out West. A long time ago. In a guarded little town…" 

"How good was your boss?" 

"At shooting?" Charon asked. Each passing second unfurled his body into another layer of unfamiliar calm. His brain screamed to be alert, to protect his contract holder, but the Med-X dulled everything from the pain to his rational thinking. 

"Yeah, at shooting." 

"Could shatter a Nuka bottle at 1,000 yards if he used a scope." 

Lone whistled. 

Charon smiled softly, at ease and not fighting it. 

"He teach you?" 

"I had been shooting long before he became my holder." Charon pulled Lone closer to him, feeling unabashed in his want for affection. "But he taught me many valuable things." 

"Med-X must be treating you well," Lone commented, sounding amused. 

Charon lolled his head over and pressed a dry kiss to the Vaultie's neck. "A patient should be thankful for an attentive doctor." 

Lone giggled, said, "Yep. You're gone. Can tell because you're not calling me a wise ass." Lone planted a kiss on Charon's temple. "Enjoy the high while it lasts because when you're down, we're walking back to Rivet City." 

"I could walk now, if that's what you wish." 

"Nope. Keep that ghoul ass seated." 

Off in the distance, a Brahmin called out in a low moo. A trader must've been crossing somewhere out of sight. 

"I can't believe that big bastard got me so good," Charon muttered, mostly to himself. 

"Giant radscorpions… only thing that's put you out so far." 

Charon made a noise and tried to tug Lone even closer. 

"As much as I'd like to, getting in your lap would upset your dressings." 

The argument stopped there. Lone fiddled with his Pip-Boy for a couple of minutes and Charon watched him, acutely interested in the glow it gave off. The green light looked even more green. Charon, nonsensically, wanted to lick it up. 

Instead, he curled his fingers around Lone's wrist and brought the wastelander's hand to his face. He kissed his knuckles, turned Lone's hand over, and pressed the palm to his cheek. Lone smiled and cradled him. 

"Turn into a big baby when you're hurt," he teased. He ran his thumb over the prominent jut of Charon's cheekbone. 

"It's the Med-X." 

"I know. I think I kind of like you this way." 

"Shall I go get stung again? The venom is also a contributor." 

Lone giggled and drew his hand down Charon's cheek to his thick, sturdy neck. Felt the pulse point there. "Nah. I like stoic, hardass Charon, too." 

Charon leaned into Lone's touch, wanted to kiss him again, but the boy seemed miles away. 

"Ten minutes and then we're up again." 

"Alright."

**Author's Note:**

> <3


End file.
